Power-transmitting device



July 31, 1928 H. P. FOWLER POWER TRANSMITTING DEVICE Filed June 1927 IPill m0 f R F 0 P v! V R m H ,1 'I/IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Patented July 31,1928.

UNITED srars HARRY P. FOWLER, 0F WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THEWATERBURY TOOL GOMPANY, OF WA'IEBIBURY, CONNECTIGUT, A. CORPORATION OFCONNECTIGUT.

POWER-TRANSMITTING DEVICE.

I Application filed time 9. 192?. Serial no. 197.555.

This invention relates to power transmitting devices, and particularlyto power transmissions for plants, in which a plurality of machines orsections of a machine are driven simultaneously from a main or primarysource of power. For example, 1n paper making plants, it is the customto use what is known as a sectional paper making machine, which machinecomprises a plurality of sections, each of which sections performs acertain step of the process of finishing or completing the paper fromthe pulp to the completed article. It is preferable to dr1ve thesemachines from some main source of power, to provide means for varym thespeed of the machine as a whole, and a so to incorporate in the drivingmeans some p r0- vision for varying the speed of each section of themachine within'comparatively small limits relatively to the othersections. It 18 very disirable to be able to regulate both the speed ofthe machine as a whole, as well as the relative speeds of the sectionsquickly, accurately and positively in order that when changes are madefrom one grade of paper to another, the desired grades of paper may beinstantly obtained without waste or undue delay or breakage of thesheet.

The principal object of this invention is to provide anew and improvedpower transmitting device, particularly adapted for use in plants of thecharacter above set forth, which device will be capable of securing thedes'red results described above.

Many different types of power transmitting devices have been heretoforeemployed for use in connection with machines of the character to whichthis invention relates, the

devices most commonly employed being of the taper cone, pulley belt,drive character. The use of hydraulic drives in connection with papermaking machinery has been recogn zed as presenting many advantages,because of the marked adaptability of such drives for obtaining verygradual changes of speed control as well as accurate adjustment thereof.

In my co-pending application Serial #132,914, I have shown and describedan example of a. hydraulic gear drive installation for a sectional papermaking machine. Considered in its more specific aspects, the presentinvention is an improvement upon the installation shown in said.application.

In accordance with the present invention,

as well as with the invention disclosed in my prior application, Iprefer to employ hydraulic gears or drivin mechanisms of the type knownas Water ury gears such as manufactured by the Waterbury Tool Company ofWaterbury, Connecticut, and dis closed in various patents, for instanceUnited States Letters Patent of Harvey D. Williams #925,1a8, grantedJune 15, 1909. Such hydraulic gears are well known and the detailconstructions thereof form no part of' the present invention. It will'besufficient to state that they consist of a ump section and a motorsection, each of WllCll consists of a rotary barrel secured to a shaft,which in the pump section, is driven from any suitable source of power,and, in the motor section is suitably coupled to the part to be driven.Each rotary barrel has formed therein a plurality of cylinders parallelwith its respective shaft and in which reciprocate pistons. Said pistonsare connected with a swash plate, the swash plate of the pump sectionbeing adjustable to different angles of inclination. For the purpose ofvarying the stroke of the pistons and therefore the output, or theamount of fluid delivered'by the pump for each revolution of the rotarybarrel, the inclination of the swash plate of the pump is adjusted,preferably by the rotation of a control shaft operatively connected witha tilting box in which the swash plate is rotatably mounted, while theangle of inclination of the swash late of the motor section ispreferably fixe When the tilting box and swash plate of the pump areperpendicular to the driving shaft thereof, or in the neutral position,the pump pistons have no stroke and no fluid is pumped. The pump sectionis operatively connected to the motor sect1on through inlet and outletports, common to both sections, and provided in a central dividing platewhich separates the two sections. As the control shaft is rotated totilt the swash plate, the stroke of the pump piston and the output ofthe pump is increased as the angle of inclination increases. Increase inthe output of the pump produces a corresponding increase in the speed ofrotation of the driving shaft of the motor, all as set forth more fullyin the Williams patent above referred to.

A satisfactory and preferred embodiment of my invention'is illustratedin the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of a powertransmitting device constructed in accordance with the principles of thepresent invention and showing diagrammatically a plurality of sectionsof a paper machine, each of which is driven by a hydraulic speed gear;Fig. 2 is a section taken substantially on the line 22 of Fig. 1, whileFig. 3 is a section through one of the hydraulic driving units.

As shown in the drawing, the numerals 10, 11, indicate sections of apaper machine, each of which is driven b a shaft 12, connected with thedriving s iaft of the motor section 13 of a hydraulic variable speedgear unit 14, one or more flexible couplings 15 preferably beininterposed between the paper machine section and the driving shaft ofthe motor. 4

Each variable speed gear unit also includes a pump section 15, having acontrol shaft 16, the lower end of which is suitably connected with theswash plate 17 of the pump. The control shaft 16 is threaded for aportion of its length to engage within a nut 18, rotatably mounted insuitable bearing-s provided in the pump casing. The nut 18 projectsoutwardly beyond the pump casing and has secured to its upper end abevel gear 19 with which meshes a co-operating gear 20 secured to oneend of a follow-up shaft 21, the latter extending in parallelism withand above the axis of the speed gear unit, and having its other endsupported in bearings provided in brackets or standards 22, 23. Securedto the followup shaft 21 between the brackets 22, 23, is a tapered conepulley 24, about which, and a similar, but oppositely tapered, pulley25, a belt 26 is trained, the cone pulley 25 being secured to the shaft12 driven by the motor section 13.

The control shaft 16 projects upwardly beyond the follow-up shaft 21 andits upper end fits slidably but non-rotatably within a bevel gear 27,meshing with a bevel gear 28, secured to a master control shaft 29. Themaster control shaft extends along the entire side of the machine andhas connected to one end thereof a hydraulic Variable speed gear unit 30of the sametype as the gear unit 14. Each section of the paper machineis provided with a gear unit 14 having a control shaft 16, follow-upshaft 21, variable speed belt and cone pulley drive and associatedparts, and each pump control shaft 16 is operatively connected with themaster control shaft 29 by means of the bevel gears 27, 28.

The input, or pump section, shaft 31 of the speed gear unit 30 is drivenat a constant speed by any suitable means, and the speed of rotation ofthe master control shaft 29 which forms the output shaft of said speedgear 30 is adapted to be varied by adjusting the control shaft 32 of thepump section of said speed gear 30 by means of a manually operatablehand wheel 33 secured to the upper end of said control shaft 32.

The input shaft 35 of each of the hydraulic speed gear units 14 ispreferably connected by means of a flexible coupling 36 with an axiallyaligned shaft 37, to which is secured a bevel gear 38. Each of the gears38 is driven by means of a bevel gear 39, secured to a main power shaft40 which is driven by an electric motor 41 rotating at a constant speed.

The operation of the installation is as follows: The electric motor 41which, as as sunied, is a constant speed motor, constitutes the powersource for driving the machine as a whole. Let it be assumed that all ofthe parts are at rest and that the control shafts for all of the speedgear units 14 are in nontral position. If now the motor 41 be notated itwill rotate, through the main driving shaft 40, bevel gears 39, 38 andshaft-s 37, the input shafts of the pump sections 15 of all of the speedgear units 14 at a constant uniform speed, but no rotation of the shafts12 of the motor sections 13 of said units will occur, because, asassumed, all of the control shafts 16 are set at neutral. If the speedgear unit 30 is now rotated and its control shaft 32 is manipulated toproduce any desired speed of rotation of the master control shaft 29,which it will be remembered is the output shaft of the speed gear unit30, the control shafts 16 of all of the speed gear units 14 will berotated from the neutral position, thereby to cause the gear units 14 tobecome operative. The speed of rotation of the output shafts of all ofthe gear units 14, effected by the rotation of the master control shaft29, obviously will be equal and all of the sections of the machines willbe driven at the same speed provided all of the belts 26 are set in thesame position. As

each of the shafts 12 is rotated, its rotation will be communicatedthrough the cone pulleys 24, 25 and belt 26 to its respective follow-upshaft 21 at a certain speed ratio determined by the setting of the beltshifted 26 for each respective belt. Rotation of the follow-up shaft 21causes the nut 18 in engagement with the control shaft 16 of eachrespective pump section to be rotated in the same direction of rotationas the control shaft 16 is rotated through the medium of the mastercontrol shaft 29. ,There will be a slight lag or dwell before the nut 18reaches its full speed of rotation because of the fact. that therotation of the shafts 12 is accomplished through the medium ofthe-fluid pumped by each pump section 15 to its motor section 13. If itbe assumed that the belt 26 is set to produce a speed of rotation of thefollow-up shaft 21 equal to the speed of rotation of its respectiveshaft 12 a condition will soon be reached when the nut 18 and itsrespective control shaft 16 will be rotatin at the same speed,whichspeed is determine by the speed of rotation of the master control shaft29. The differences in speed between each control shaft 12 and itsrespective follow-up shaft 21 secured by the adjustment of the belt 26are comparatively slight. The speed of the machine as a Whole is, aswill be readily understood, determined by the speed of rotation of themaster control shaft 29 the speed of rotation of which can be varied tosecure any desired speed say, for example, one revolution per minute upto the full speed of the electric motor or other driving means employedfor driving the speed gear 30, and the changes in the speed of rotationof the master control shaft 29 may be made as gradually as desired. Nomatter what the speed of rotation of the master control shaft 29 may be,the speed of rotation of all of the shafts 12, neglecting slightdifferences due to the setting of the belts 26 will obviously be equalto the speed of rotation of the master control shaft. In the lastanalysis,'however, the rotation of each shaft 12' is utilized to effectits own speed of rotation through the medium,

of the pulleys 24, 25, belt 26, follow-up shaft 21 and nut 18. It willbe seen that it will be possible with the installation herein disclosedto secure, by slight adjustments of the belts 26, a speed of rotation ofall of the machine sections that will be absolutely uniform or that themost minute difi'erences in the relative speeds of different machinesections may be obtained, and maintained,

to secure the proper draw between the sections. Due to the fact that themain power source is the electric motor 41, which is put in rotationatits full speed before the master control shaft 29 is rotated to move thecontrol shafts 15 from neutral, and also to the fact. that theapplication of power for starting the machine sections is made throughfluid pressure means, it is not necessary to employ an electric motorwhich will have a high starting torque. In addition the inventionenables two or more speed gear units to be applied to any one section ofthe paper machine where greater power or torque may be required than forother sections. The use of hydraulic speed ears enables the machine tobe run very slow y for threading in the paper and after the paper isthreaded in, the control shaft 32 of the speed gear 30 may then be setto secure the desired speed of rotation of the machine as a whole. Itwill be understood that a suitable indicating dial may be employed forthe control shaft 32 so that said shaft may be set instantly to securethe desired speed of the machine.

If it is found necessary or desirable in order to compensatefor drawiofthe paper,

and to change the speed of any particular section of the machinerelatively to that of the other sections, the belt shifter 26 of suchsection may be adjusted in the proper direc changes, by means of theadjustment of the belt shifters, is but comparatively slight.

It will also be understood that the speed of the machine as a whole willbe controlled by the setting of a single, readily manipulated member,namely, the manually operatable handle 33, adjustment of which controlsthe speed of the master control shaft 29 for producing any desired speedwithin the limits of the installation. Owing to the factthat the driveis hydraulic, the speed changes of the machine as a whole, as wellcasthe speed changes between the respective sections thereof, can be madevery gradually without producing any abrupt or sudden "jerks, such aswould tend to cause rupture or tearing of the paper. In addition, thespeed adjustments of the entire machine, as well as eachtsectionthereof, can be made with the greatest accuracy of control.

While I have illustrated and described the invention asapplied to asectional paper making machine. it is to beunderstood that I theprinciples of the invention are not limited in their application to theparticular machine selected for the purpose of illustration herein, butthat they may be employed with many different types' of machines and inmany difierent relations; Likewise, it will be understood that variouschanges, variations and modifications may be made without departing fromthe principles of the invention.

1 claim: 1

1. The combination with a plurality of machine units adapted to performsuccessive steps of a continuous-operation upon material treated by suchunits, of a plurality of driving units for each of saidhachine units,characterized by each of said driving units consisting of a hydraulicvariable speed gear having a control shaft adapted to be rotated to varythe driving speed of said speed gear, a master control shaft forsimultaneously actuating all of said control shafts, and means driven bythe driving shaft of each respective speed gear for driving units foreach of said machine units,

respective spee characterized by each of said driving units consistingof a hydraulic variable speed gear having a control shaft adapted to berotated to vary the driving speed of said speed gear, a master controlshaft for,simultaneously actuating all of said control shafts, and meansdriven b the driving shaft of each (i gear for counteracting theadjustment of its respective control shaft produced by rotation of themaster shaft, said means including a follow-up shaft operativeconnections between said follow-up shaft and its respective controlshaft, and a variable speed drivin connection between said follow-upshaft and the driving shaft of its respective speed gear.

3. The combination with a plurality of machine units adapted to performsuccessive steps of a continuous operation upon ma terial treated bysuch units, of a plurality of driving units for each of said machineunits, characterized by each of said driving units consisting of ahydraulic variable speed gear having a control shaft adapted to beadjusted to vary the speed of said gear, a master control shaft andconnections there from to each of said speed gears, means for drivingsaid control shaft including a device for adjusting the speed thereof, afollow-i up' shaft for each of said speed gears and driving connectionsbetween said follow-up shaft, the driving shaft of its respective speedgear and the control shaft thereof, said driving connections includingan adjustable variable speed device.

4. The combination with a plurality of machine units adapted to performsuccessive steps of a continuous operation upon material treated by suchunits, of a phi-'- rality of driving units, one for each of said machineunits, and a main driving device for driving all of said driving unitsin unison, characterized by each of said driving units consisting of ahydraulic variable speed gear, having an adjustable control shaft, arotatable nut in which said control shaftis rotatably mounted, afollow-up shaft for each of said speed gears operatively connected withthe driving shaft of its respective gear and with said nut, a variablespeed device interposed between said driving shaft and said nut, and amaster control shaft operatively connected with all of the controlshafts of said speed gears.

5. The COlIlblIliltlOD with a plurality of machine units adapted toperform successive steps of a continuous operation upon material treatedby such units. of a plum ity cf driving units, one for each of saidmachine units, and a main driving device for driving all of said drivingunits in unison, characterized by each of said driving units consistingof a hydraulic variable speed gear, having an adjustable control shaft,a rotatable nut'in which said control shaft is rotatably mounted, afollow-up shaft for each of said speed gears operatively connected withthe driving shaft of its respective gear and with said nut, a variablespeed device interposed between said driving shaft and said nut, and amaster control shaft op- K units, of a main power driving device of.uniform speed, a master control of adjustable speed for regulating thespeed of all of said driving unlts in unison, and an independentcontrolling device of adjustable effect for each of said driving units,each of said independent devices being connected with and driven by thedriving shaft of its respective driving unit whereby the rotation of thedriving shaft of each unit is employed to cont-r01 its own speed.

7. Ihe combination with a plurality of machine units adapted to performsuccessive steps of a continuous operation upon material treated by suchunits, and a plurality of driving units, one for each of said ma chineunits, of a main driving shaft, a power device of constant uniform speedconnected with said main driving shaft, caring connecting said maindriving sha t with each of said driving units, a controlling device foreach of said driving units for regulating the speed thereof, a mastercontrol shaft and connections therefrom to each of said controllingdevices, a driving device of adjustable efl'ect for actuating saidmaster control shaft, and a follow-up control for each of said drivingunits interposed between the driving shaft of its respective unit andthe said controlling device in said unit.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand. I

HARRY P. FOWLER.

